Atlanta — May 18, 2005

Dr. Thomas A. Wilkerson, vice president for academic affairs and professor of speech at Spartanburg Methodist College, in Spartanburg, S.C., was named today as president of Bainbridge College by the Board of Regents and University System of Georgia Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith.

The long-time former USG administrator will assume the presidency of Bainbridge College on July 1.

Regent Doreen Poitevant chaired the Special Regents Committee charged with interviewing the presidential finalists and making a recommendation to the full Board of Regents for consideration and final approval. She said: “Dr. Wilkerson is the right choice for Bainbridge College at this time. I am confident he will be immensely successful.”

Chancellor Meredith said he is impressed with the next president’s understanding of the role two-year colleges play in providing access to higher education. “Dr. Wilkerson has more than 20 years of experience as a two-year college administrator, most of it gained right here in the University System of Georgia,” Meredith stated. “I am confident he will provide strong leadership for Bainbridge and deepen the college’s ties with the people of Southwest Georgia.”

Dr. Wilkerson has served in his current position at Spartanburg Methodist College since 1997. Prior to assuming that role, he spent 29 years in the University System of Georgia. His last USG post was as vice president for academic affairs and professor of speech at South Georgia College, in Douglas, Ga., from 1984 to 1997. During his association with the college, Wilkerson forged deep ties with the Douglas/Coffee County community. He served as a member of the local chamber of commerce and as a founding member of the Coffee Alliance for the Arts and the Coffee Theatre Company, for which he served two terms as president. Wilkerson also was heavily involved in two programs in Douglas/Coffee County that foster high-school completion and participation in post-secondary education.

While at South Georgia, Dr. Wilkerson also accepted several additional leadership opportunities within the University System. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee of the Regents’ Administrative Committee on Academic Affairs, he chaired ad-hoc committees charged with developing guidelines for the assessment of two-year college majors and developing policies and procedures for academic services and distance-learning technology.

He also worked on the committee charged with updating guidelines for international-student participation in the Regents Testing Program. Dr. Wilkerson also served on an ad-hoc committee charged with developing guidelines for implementing the Memorandum of Agreement between the Board of Regents and the Department of Technical and Adult Education.

Prior to joining the faculty of South Georgia College, Dr. Wilkerson served from 1974 to 1984 as chair of the Division of Humanities at another USG institution, Dalton College in Dalton, Ga. He assumed that role after serving as a Speech/English faculty member, teaching remedial English, English composition, literature, humanities and public speaking at the college from 1969 to 1984.

Dr. Wilkerson began his career in higher education at yet another USG two-year institution, Middle Georgia College, in Cochran, Ga., where he served as chair of the Department of Speech/Drama from 1968 to 1969.

Dr. Wilkerson holds undergraduate degrees from Augusta College, in Augusta, Ga., and Georgia Southern College, in Statesboro, an M.F.A. in speech and drama from the University of Georgia, and an Ed.D. in speech education, also from UGA.

Dr. Wilkerson is married to Angela Whittington Wilkerson. The couple has two grown children.

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